Hi Mr Fibble, I thought I would add to AFPU's advice. He is dead right, a later Super Ikonta with chrome lens surround would look all wrong and you might end up with a coated lens! However, it depends on what you mean by 'silver trimmings.' I have known some confusion on this with one seller thinking that he had a later camera because it had chrome trim round the top. It's the lens surround that you need to look at. As I said before, turn up the sites on Google and familiarise yourself. There is one with a list of lens serial numbers to enable you to date the lenses although it is known that some post-war cameras were made up using pre-war lenses.Regards, Dave.

The Civilian WarCos and War Photographers were to be treated as officers yes. And yes, the uniform was without BOS insignia IIRC. Capa mentions in "Slightly out of focus" that he had to have his own uniform tailored (and thought it didn't look anything like the real thing)

Although there were many journalists brought into the US military to write stories about the war effort, the military also trained some of the best wartime documentation and combat photographers themselves. I'm a distant relative of Casimir Gardocki, and he was a military photographer. Trained to develop, load and sometimes shoot film in the fighter-bombers, fighter escorts and recon aircraft of the 510th Army Air Force Squadron, he also carried with him, a couple of Kodak pocket folding cameras as well as early movie cameras, throughout the war.

Casi showed a special aptitude for technical work and especially photography, when he was tested after he enlisted in 1942. He often flew in the bombers and fighters he supplied with machine gun movie film and recon camera film. He also developed that film on the battlefield. But in every spare moment he was taking photos of his comrades in arms, or little French children (GC NDH 019), or crashed pilot assistance after a bad landing (GC NG 107), or the way battlefield airmen really lived (GC NG 282B and GC NG 268D), or the attitude Americans had during the war (example GC NH 038). To see a real 510th flyer in full flying gear, try GC NG 288A.

He was fully capable of taking numerous photos with his own image as the star (GC NG 048 as well as some of the Petersen and Lowry photos), but it tore his heart out, that the odds were, that some of his friend/flyers wouldn't return from escort or bomber duty every day. So he made it his mission to photograph as many of his buddies in the 510th and few other squadrons, to give them prints to keep or send home to loved ones. He often copied his own negatives for some soldiers who were about to return stateside (or had a friend who was returning), so that dozens of prints could be made from these negs back-stateside. Check the Clark Bremseth and Capt Wm Shafer photos in the 510th website and you'll see numerous duplicates of my uncle's photos.

Artistically Casi was often inspired by sunsets (example GC NG 124) and clouds in the sky (check out the England photos). He was also enamoured with the nose art on many of the American aircraft (I like GC NG 294B best, but GC NG 263E is funny, and GC NG 553B or GC NG 294B are good too). He really loved the guys he flew and fought with in places like Omaha Beach and Bastogne, Belgium. He just couldn't make himself take personal photos of the horrors of war, although he was required to do this for his job. He could document city blocks that were blown up (GC NG 322A) but dead bodies on Omaha Beach or military casualties of any kind, or even the death camp they had to document, were subjects that needed reverence for the dead, not exploitation by the living who happened to have pocket cameras.

Casi could barely even talk about what he saw documenting the countless scenes of man's gross inhumanity to man. He thought the savage fury of men murdering men (or worse, murdering civilians, or worst of all, children) was obviously a form of insanity at the national, local and personal levels. When I was a child, Casi showed me photos from the war, and once in while some bad image would appear, although he quickly brushed them aside so I wouldn't see them. NAZI horrors choked him up, even in the 50s and 60s, and the nightmares he suffered were horrendous. This is why his collection of personal photos was never passed to the official 510th archives, and a small pat of it was only discovered by accident, years after his death. What he saw of the NAZIs and the activities of the German SS made him want to vomit for the last 40 years of his life. He passed on that disgust of NAZI-ism to me, because he felt the NAZIs had unleashed a terrible evil on the earth, and the SS and NAZIs in general, were the agents of a horrible and insane evil.

I am contributing this to a battle reenactment website only because this thread is interesting, although I usually only study WWII reenactment web pages to follow the activities of German reenactors whose interest in dressing up like NAZI SS soldiers and officers goes beyond recreating battles. I seek out those who really wish (hope, pray, or arrange) to be real NAZIs. It is those who really believe in NAZI philosophy and so dress up as SS officers to thrill at spouting NAZI slogans and Hitlerisms that I try to identify.

I am particularly interested in all the millions of Deutchmarks Gunther Strassemir poured into supplying the German WWII reenactors. Gunther had 4 dreams (vows he made to Adolph Hitler himself as a Hitler Youth) and used his position as the Party First Secretary to Helmut Kohl, to put enormous amounts of money into producing a Nazi presence in battle reenactments (under the cover of improving tourist attractions in Germany and Europe as a whole). This money supplied funds for training and uniforms of German reenactor NAZIs as well as explosives training (using Bundeswehr expertise) so that battle reenactments involving German NAZI reenactors would look more realistic.

Gunther Strassmeir dreamed that Germany would be re-unified (#1)(and Gunther Strassmeir is often called the Father of German Reunification). He dreamed that Europe would also be unified (as he was taught in his Hitler Youth days) and GERMANY would be the leader of the unified Europe (#2)(he was also a driving force behind the development of the European Common Market). Gunther wanted to rebuild the reputation of the NAZI SS as heroes and valiant protectors of mythological Teutonic Aryans. To do this he circumvented the German laws against Nazi propaganda and symbols, by financing all the trappings of the SS soldiers right down to the ceremonial daggers, using the justification that it made for better battle reenactments. This way, German reenactors could use Bundeswehr explosives technician expertise (as seen in the 1994 Normandy reenactments) to improve the "look" of German financed battle reenactments. Neo-NAZI thugs enlisted into participating in battle reenactments often use surprisingly sophisticated timers and explosives when they blow up, fire bomb and murder Turkish refugees in refugee centers (murdering mostly women, children and the aged, ... sound familiar).

Gunther's 4th dream/vow was that terrible acts of terrorism should be inflicted on the USA because America tipped the war balance away from Hitler's Germany and in favor of England, France etc. The Oklahoma City bombing was the kind of tragedy Gunther Strassmeir hoped would happen in the USA. It's no surprise that Gunther's son, Andreus, was a regular participant in WWII battle reenactments. Andreus was in the German military GSG-9 terrorism task force, and Andreus was aso pursued by the FBI for his role in the Oklahoma City Bombing. A friend of Andreus Strassmeir, Kirk Lyons of Black Mountain, North Carolina, is another huge battle reenactment participant (although more often in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania as a Confederate States supporter, when he isn't a lawyer defending Ku Klux Klan members). It should be no surprise that Kirk Lyons grandfather was one of the founders of the German NAZI party in the early 1920s/30s.

Casimir Gardocki hated NAZIs with a passion that made his memories of the horrors of WWII NAZI insanity, difficult to forget. It always upset him that NAZIism, racism and destruction of so many lives was set aside to allow Germany to be a buffer against a Communist threat that we all know was on the verge of imploding into itself under its own weight. It is unfortunate that so many people gave their lives in WWII or lived with the scars of NAZI horrors, to keep that type of philosophy from over-running the earth, and today we have German battle reenactors glamorizing NAZI SS troops, strutting around like SS soldiers and officers and many of them feel inside like they really should be allowed to be NAZIs again, because It Makes Them Feel Like the Superior Race Hitler told them they should be.

PS in case the link to his photos (which speak for themselves) gets chopped off, just go to Google and put in "Gardocki Collection" and "510th" in quotes as I show them and it will get you there. Casi recommended using Tri-X pushed to 1600 ASA in the oldest folders from Kodak that you can find in order to recreate the way WWII images really looked when taken by the photographers of the day.

Sorry for digging this thread up but I didn't think my question warranted a new one.

I've been quite interested in old cameras for a couple of years now & I've built up a small collection of SOHO Cadet cameras. I've just been reorganising them and I've noticed that one has still got an exposed film in it. It’s a roll of 120 Kodak Pan Film Verichrome P.

Firstly does anyone know how old this kind of film is? Secondly would it be worth getting it developed?

I see a couple of Elmars of various focal lengths, a Hektor tele lens, a Summar lens or two, a few Summitars. Have you got anything exotic like a Xenon lens or a Hektor wide-angle? I'm looking for a wartime CZJ Sonnar myself (and a Leica IIIcK body if I could afford one)

I see you also have a few "NOOKY" close-focus attachements You got to love those 5 letter codes.

No I havent ever got round to getting the Xenon or the 73mm Hektor and 90mmThambar as I do have the lend of all those lenses from another collector which is great! I have a "Nooky"(elmar) and "Nooky Hesum" (summitar) and they do work very well, great for that close up face shot. My collection is as follows;Leica II 1938 III 1938 IIIa 1938 IIIb 1938 IIIb 1939 IIIb 1939 IIIc N.L Red shutter IIIc red shutter IIIc IIIck Grey Vulcanite ( all with various lenses from 3.5 elmar or 50mm elmars, summar or summitars all lenses pre-war or war dated)Zeiss contax II 1937 sonnar 135 contax II 1939 sonnar 50 Super Ikonta 532/16Kodak 35 sig corps Rettina IIRobot Luftwaffen EigentumCornu Reyna I " " II " " cross III (all made in occupied Paris noted to be used by the resistance)Rollieflex original 1935 Standard Standard (Made in Japan under licence form nazi Germany) New Standard 3x Automats (two with rolleikin backs) 2x Rolleicords Speed Graphic Anniversary (Wartime Black)Ihagee (110 film with original war dated infared and std film in boxes)

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